Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Japan trip Winter 2019 - Pokemon Cafe

We visited the Pokemon Cafe in Nihonbashi, Tokyo for an early lunch on the second day of our trip!

I made a reservation online on their website.
It's easy to use as much of the website can translated to English when you're using Google Chrome. Be sure to keep track of the day that's approximately 1 month before your desired date, so you can reserve as early as possible! The spots fill up really fast and are for specific time slots.

We had a 10:40 reservation and was asked to be in line about 10 minutes early. The Pokemon Center and Pokemon Cafe are located on the 5th floor of the Takashimaya East building. There's direct access to Takashimaya's Main building from the subway station, but it still takes a little bit to get all the way to the East one and then to the 5th floor, so be sure to account for that time so you're not late! We had the first time slot, and since Takashimaya doesn't actually open until 10:30, we weren't actually 10 minutes early, but as close as we could get.

When you exit the elevators, you'll instantly know you're in the right place!

There was a staff serving as the greeting hostess when we first entered who asked for our name and then showed us to our assigned table. We were warned that we only had 90 minutes and our reservation ended at 12:10.

We chose to sit down and order first! There's some instructions and a complimentary paper placemat at each seat (which is one of 150 options) for you to take home.

Ordering is done at an iPad at the table which has changeable languages. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there's much of an item description, so you'll have to base your choice on the photo or research the menu online beforehand!

My husband ordered the Napping Snorlax lunch plate with a Zapdos soda float with boba, and I ordered the Pikachu curry!
They looked exactly like the menu photos!

We even had Pokemon themed utensils.

Once we completed our meal and didn't want to order anything further, we explored the cafe a little more.

They have plenty of items for sale, many that are exclusive to the Pokemon Cafe or cafe themed! They even sell some of the dishes that the meals are served on. We had wanted to get a Gengar glass cup that I had seen online but unfortunately they had already sold out!

Once during every reservation slot, Chef Pikachu enters the cafe and interacts with guests! We had actually left at around 11:20 to go check out the Pokemon Center (store) just across the floor, but were able to come back in to the cafe since it was before the end time to see him for a bit at 11:30.

We didn't use our entire reservation time, but felt that we were good to go after taking a few last photos :)

Tbh I have to say our experience was a little underwhelming overall since we didn't just hang out and sit and continue ordering dessert or lattes after eating, but I'm sure that if you love Pokemon, you'll find something in or at the cafe that is worthwhile! I certainly don't have any regrets about going. My main takeaways were make your reservation early and even consider making a purchase at the same time if you know you want to buy something. Don't miss out like we did!

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